The Yellow Bag... Terrorist Tents... Veterans' Tent...

Since the public no longer has the means or possibility to keep up with the speed of the country's leaders' U-turns, take a look at what is happening.

It wasn't long ago, just 3 years ago, when banners featuring a white Toros model car and the intelligence officer nicknamed “Yeşil” (Mahmut Yıldırım) were unfurled in the stands during a Bursaspor-Amedspor match; an investigation was launched, and 9 people were detained. The 6 people the prosecutor's office requested to be arrested were released under judicial control measures.

Following the events, the then-Minister of Interior, Süleyman Soylu, announced that “an investigation had been launched into the public officials who showed weakness in allowing these visuals into the stadium, and that they had been suspended.”

AKP spokesperson Ömer Çelik also stated, “Provocative attempts contrary to sports and the spirit of sports will under no circumstances be permitted.”

MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli, however, showed a completely different reaction. After stating that “the provocative visuals waved from the stands and the unrest that occurred were entirely contrary to the ethics and nature of sports,” Bahçeli said, “In our view, there is no such place as Amed, and a club called Amedspor cannot be mentioned. The naming of Diyarbakırspor as Amedspor is null and void in our eyes.”

He then congratulated the Bursaspor fans for their “national stance.”

The same Bahçeli, 3 years later this past May, sent the following congratulatory message to the “Amedspor President” on the occasion of Amedspor’s promotion to the Süper Lig:

“I welcome the success of Amedspor, which was founded in 1990 and has brought color, excitement, and a new breath to Turkish sports, in reaching the Süper Lig for the first time in its club history... I sincerely believe that Amedspor will contribute positively to the climate of peace, unity, and solidarity in our Turkey by acting with an understanding that prioritizes the spirit of fair play, sports ethics, and the law of brotherhood in its Süper Lig journey.”

Two days after Bahçeli’s message, DEM Ağrı MP Sırrı Sakık emphasized that Amedspor was not just a football team and spoke as follows:

“Amedspor is the rebellion of the Kurdish people, a century-old rebellion. We are everywhere. Amedspor was subjected to attacks in Bursa, faced racism, but still succeeded. This team is the symbol of all Kurds across the world.”

The Inventor of the Yellow Bag

Let us come to the recent Kocaelispor-Amedspor match, where some people displayed a “yellow bag.”

If I didn't miss it, there was no sound from the AKP this time.

The Amedspor President stated that the atmosphere created in the stadium, the language used, and the symbols were “concerning in terms of social unity and the unifying spirit of sports,” and noted the following:

“We will never allow these events, which took place before the eyes of all authorities, to be ignored... We expect both the judicial authorities and the Turkish Football Federation to carry out the necessary examinations regarding these incidents and initiate legal and administrative processes.”

The Diyarbakır Bar Association also declared that the “yellow bag” act “evokes images of conflict and violence in the public eye, carries the nature of a threat, and targets social peace,” while filing a criminal complaint against those responsible for “publicly degrading a segment of the public, threats, and inciting the public to hatred and hostility.”

The Kocaeli Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into 5 identified individuals for “inciting the public to hatred and hostility.” The detained suspects were released under house arrest.

Is it possible not to remember that former Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu introduced the “yellow bag” into our lives?

For example, in a program in 2021, when he said, “We conducted an operation in Mardin yesterday. Our friends entered the cave today as well, they took 6 yellow bags,” a storm of applause broke out in the hall.

In 2022, he made the following post:

“It was a bit late, but it wasn't impossible. In the operation carried out by Gendarmerie and Police Intelligence with UAVs, ATAK, and close air support, with the heroism of our gendarmerie during the clash, 3 more terrorists are in yellow bags in Şırnak Gabar. Not long left.”

Again in 2022, while announcing that the number of terrorist organization members had fallen below 120, he said, “We are telling them one thing: ‘Either the yellow bag or surrender’.”

In 2023, he reported that 85 terrorists remained in Turkey and announced that “the terrorist who martyred Gendarmerie Petty Officer Sergeant Mehmet Gündüz in Mardin has been put in a yellow bag.”

And because of this rhetoric, Soylu was criticized by former AKP MP Hüseyin Besli, one of the authors of the book “R. Tayyip Erdoğan: The Birth of a Leader,” only after he was removed from office:

“This rhetoric might go well in coffee-house chats among the neighborhood toughs and be a good subject for banter. However, it is a quality that does not befit the seriousness of the state and is not in accordance with the language of the state.”

Aren't These Crimes?

Those who displayed the “yellow bag” were given house arrest... The Independent Mining Workers' Union Chairman Gökay Çakır and Organizing Specialist Başaran Aksu, who were seeking the rights of miners, were arrested... The reason: “inciting the public to hatred and hostility”!..

So what about what has been happening since the adoption of the PKK law?

- The terrorist organization publishes a list of which province the terrorists killed are from almost every day, and “martyrs do not die” condolence tents are immediately opened in these places. DEM MPs also join the condolence queues...

- Lists of names of these terrorists and posters of the terrorist leader are hung on the walls of Diyarbakır...

- DEM co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları, who attended the condolences, explains that the terrorists “fell to the ground so that the Kurdish people could live in this geography with their heads held high...”

- Our National Anthem is whistled at matches...

But no prosecutor comes out and opens/can open an investigation into these actions, which are contrary to the Constitution and the Law on Political Parties—which are still in force even if they have been rendered “dysfunctional”—and are even clearly in the nature of “inciting the public to hatred and hostility”!..

And what about the media sessions conducted by the DEM İmralı delegation and the terrorist leader's former secretary regarding the opening, and what Tuncer Bakırhan said?

- For the first time, a “Kurdish rebellion” is being discussed on the floor of Parliament...

- The PKK law is “not the solution itself, but the first step toward the solution”...

- Delegations will need to come from Qandil to Imralı for the process to progress...

- There are critical stages and difficult phases ahead of us...

- Laws that will meet demands such as language and identity will also be passed...

- This constitution should be changed because it does not meet their needs regarding “transforming into a democratic republic”...

- “Democratic integration is not a model of melting away by giving up identity and demands.” After Syria, the “democratic integration” process needs to start in Iran as well...

Without looking at their own state and conduct, they also complain about these and try to put people in their place:

- Some segments are using “hurtful language” instead of acting in line with the goal of peace...

- Attacks against “Kurds” have started again in recent days. A “racist, nationalist wave” is rising in the stands... They “will never turn a blind eye to organized demonstrations that trample on the pain of one side.” Everyone will know their “place”...

- And yet, the authorities who have been telling the nation for two years, “There is no bargaining. This is not a give-and-take process,” do not come out to deny these claims or put anyone in their place!..

Operation to Discredit Veterans

Let's also look at the drama that rank-and-file veterans and families of rank-and-file martyrs, who are demanding their personal rights, have been experiencing in the middle of Ankara for 47 days.

- When they started a sit-in at Ankara Güvenpark on July 13, the police did not allow them to use the tent sent by the Çankaya Municipality because it had a name on it. They even asked them to take down the flags, posters, and prosthetics they had hung, saying it “causes visual pollution”...

- When they wanted to go to Parliament, their path was blocked by the police...

- On the 38th day of the protest, they were kicked out of Güvenpark with a 04:45 morning raid...

- When they wanted to go to the Veteran Housing, which was built entirely with the nation's donations, soldiers were stationed against them this time...

- Instead of the Minister of Family, they were made to meet with a Deputy Minister who had nothing to do with the issue. When they wanted to go to the Ministry of National Defense (MSB), they were surrounded by police again. When they went to the MSB, they returned because they could not find anyone to talk to...

- They have been sleeping in Kurtuluş Park for 9 days. Precipitation is expected in the coming days. They are thinking hard about where to find a tent and say, “Since they don't allow the Çankaya Municipality's tent; isn't AFAD also a state institution, let them send one.”

- There is also an operation to discredit veterans through the media that is unbelievable. They first targeted Platform Spokesperson Erdem Çerçioğlu, who attracted public attention with his effective speeches, by bringing up a photo of him with former Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Tunç Soyer and some of his posts. Çerçioğlu is the President of the İzmir Torbalı Veterans and Martyrs' Families Association. As if taking a photo with Tunç Soyer, who visited the Association while he was mayor, is some kind of crime?! That wasn't enough; it was claimed that Erdem Çerçioğlu’s veteran status was “fake,” and it was announced that security units were also investigating other protesters. Even if there were a case of “fake” veteran status; where has the state been for 28 years, why was he given the “State Medal of Honor” by a Council of Ministers decision? Do those who leaked these claims realize that they are discrediting the state before Çerçioğlu?..

- The pro-government media announced that security units are continuing their “investigations into how the protest was organized, the relationships between the participants, and the past activities of some people present at the protest”; even those who visit the veterans are being filmed right under their noses, and some of these visitors are even asked “why they came” after they leave the park...

Answer to Bakırhan: “Let’s Meet in Cudi”

While the administrators ignore and pretend not to see the rank-and-file veterans, a surprise voice came from DEM co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan the other day.

While Bakırhan was explaining that the loss of a child's life—neither a Turkish mother's nor a Kurdish mother's—is one of the most successful points of the last 2 years, and saying that it is necessary to understand the pain experienced by those who set up condolences for PKK members and the families of martyrs and veterans—who he still thinks are in Güvenpark—he addressed the families of martyrs and veterans as follows:

“Your pain is also precious, valuable. Just like the Peace Mothers, just like the Saturday Mothers, the pain of your children is in our hearts... I am making a call; I say to the families of martyrs and veterans, either you come like the Saturday Mothers and Peace Mothers, or we will come to you, we will listen to you. Tell us your criticisms, your suggestions. This process is exactly the process of children's funerals not coming. Therefore, those who will best understand this process are the Saturday Mothers, the Peace Mothers, and the families of martyrs and veterans. They should own this process the most.”

We asked the veterans in Kurtuluş Park about this call from Bakırhan.

Reminding that the state does not consider them interlocutors, Platform Spokesperson Erdem Çerçioğlu said, “This is what suits them. Look at the situation they have reduced us to”...

Some veterans responded to Bakırhan by saying, “Let’s meet in Cudi”!..

Müyesser YILDIZ

August 28, 2026